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Teams get down to business as they try to “right the ship” in these few crucial months. Photo by: Eric Nichay

Week one of the NFL free agency period has now concluded and it’s time to assess what teams are getting better from their acquisitions and what teams are setting themselves up to fail. It is easy to be fooled by the names on paper and overpay for a free agent. Sometimes the perception of a player lasts longer than his actual abilities. If a player has been known as a stud for his team and the fanbase in the new city likes him and is maybe pushing for the team to sign him, then that player has a higher chance of being overpaid on the open market. Believe it or not, this is a common occurrence in the NFL. Players get cut from teams every year because the back-end of their contract is far more expensive than they realize the player is worth. Teams simply write clauses and loopholes into these contracts so that they can cut the player as easily as possible when they need to create more cap space.

That however, is only a problem for teams that lose on their gamble at free agency. For every loser during the month of March, there is another team on the opposite end of the spectrum that vastly improved and strengthened their roster. The best teams even sign core players. “Core player” is really just a fancy way of saying the athlete is a game-changer. Players with elite skillsets, in the most elite league in the world, tilt the scales in their team’s favor regarding the ultimate goal of every franchise entering the season – just get to the playoffs.